At the end of her three week stay, and first time, in Toronto, EHALE’s Executive Director Olinda Magaia asked to see me in my office. EHALE is PWRDF’s development partner in northern Mozambique.

Olinda wanted to say thank you on behalf of the tens of thousands of Mozambicans who are healthier, and thousands of mothers and babies who are alive because of PWRDF support of EHALE’s community food security and health work. Olinda said PWRDF is her answer to prayer. As she is the answer to our prayers, I added.

I thanked her for her grit as a director ensuring that funding was used as designated. I thanked her for her creativity in imagining bicycle ambulances which have now become boat and motorcycle ambulances in Tanzania, Bangladesh and Burundi. I thanked Olinda for her innovative gender work with Christian and Muslim leaders, and her patient, transformative work on traditional practices.

At the end we embraced one another, and then Olinda held on and jumped me up and down with joy. I wish every PWRDF volunteer and supporter could be in a room with Olinda and jump for a while.

Sharing those moments in the office was João Miguel Xavier, the finance manager of EHALE. I thanked him too, for his faithful and trustworthy financial work. At our staff Christmas gathering on December 10, we learned that a month ago a gang of robbers stopped Miguel and his two daughters and surrounded their car. Miguel’s first response was to step out of the car to protect his children. He was beaten and injured badly and has a long road to recovery. His children were physically unharmed.

PWRDF work in many places is reflected in these two parts of the story: the jumping joy of lives saved and improved, and partners working in the face and threat of violence in an unsettled society. Thank you for your interest, energy and support for their work through The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund.

This Christmas, please join with us in praying for mothers, babies and fathers, and working towards a truly, just, healthy and peaceful world.